Samsung posts strong Q3 results

SOLID GROWTH Riding high on the recovery in DRAM prices, the world's largest memory chip maker saw third-quarter net income rise 16 percent from a year earlier

AP , SEOUL

Samsung Electronics Co said yesterday that its net profit rose 16 percent in the third quarter on strong sales of its mainstay memory chips.

Samsung earned 2.19 trillion won (US$2.3 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, the company said in a statement. Samsung posted net profit of 1.88 trillion won a year earlier.

Sales during the quarter rose 4.7 percent to 15.22 trillion won.

Samsung is the world's largest memory chip maker and a top producer of consumer electronics, including flat-screen televisions, mobile phone handsets, MP3 players and laptops.

The result, better than expected, was Samsung's third profit gain in the past four quarters.

The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires forecast that the company would post a net profit of 1.9 trillion won on sales of 15.32 trillion won.

Shortage

Samsung said profit margins were boosted by its memory chip business as it took advantage of a global surge in prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips owing to a supply shortage to shift production from slower growth products.

Sales in its semiconductor business rose 7 percent from the same period the year before, with memory chips rising 5 percent.

Samsung manufactures both DRAM chips, used in personal computers, as well as NAND flash memory chips used in digital cameras and music players like Apple Computer Inc's iPod Nano.

"We anticipate our key business units to experience significant tailwinds in the fourth quarter, a seasonally strong period," Chu Woo-sik, senior vice president and head of Samsung's investor-relations team, said in a statement.

"Furthermore, our plan to invest an additional 1 trillion won to increase capacity of our memory chip business is expected to create revenue opportunities next year," he said.